Is this America’s idea of winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people? Do Americans understand the price the world will pay for invading and virtually decimating Iraq? We hear time and time again from George W. Bush that Saddam refused to cooperate yet we have not heard one single explanation as to how he refused. He permitted intrusive inspections and he claimed that he was not hiding WMDs. He never threatened the US. He cooperated. And now it turns out that he did not have WMDs. So where is this mysterious refusal?

Now, the Arab world sees the decimation of Iraq, the killing of thousands of civilians and they see the record earnings by Halliburton and the rest of the companies making the Bush administration, their families and their supporters rich at the expense of Iraq and at the expense of over 725 American military personnel (as of 4/30/04). More people hate Americans now. More people want to kill us. More people no longer trust us.

Bush Policies Led to Abuse in Iraq - The 38-page report, “The Road to Abu Ghraib,” examines how the Bush administration adopted a deliberate policy of permitting illegal interrogation techniques – and then spent two years covering up or ignoring reports of torture and other abuse by U.S. troops.

The Road to Abu Ghraib - REPORT: A Policy to Evade International Law - Circumventing the Geneva Conventions - Undermining the Rules Against Torture

Photos of torture reach Iraq - Removing Saddam Hussein was supposed to end the torture, but photos of U.S. soldiers humiliating prisoners bring a horrific past back - "These are the things that make Iraqis pick up a weapon and want to kill American soldiers," said Ribahi, 32, sipping sweet tea at a Baghdad coffeehouse Friday evening. "When I saw those pictures, I wanted to pick up a weapon, too."

30 MORE TORTURE SCANDALS PROBED - THIRTY cases of torture and murder by British and American troops against Iraqi POWs are being investigated by defense chiefs.

The Abu Ghraib Prison Photos - It’s the "liberation" of the Iraqi people TVNL Comment: There are more pictures here. Caution: They are very disturbing.

New Prison Images Emerge - Graphic Photos May Be More Evidence of Abuse - The collection of photographs begins like a travelogue from Iraq. Here are U.S. soldiers posing in front of a mosque. Here is a soldier riding a camel in the desert. And then: a soldier holding a leash tied around a man's neck in an Iraqi prison. He is naked, grimacing and lying on the floor. - Mixed in with more than 1,000 digital pictures obtained by The Washington Post are photographs of naked men, apparently prisoners, sprawled on top of one another while soldiers stand around them.

PIC THAT PROVES QLR TOOK PHOTOS OF BEATEN IRAQIS - A SOLDIER has produced damning proof that British troopers took "trophy" photos of Iraqi prisoners being abused. - Soldier D photographed a colleague in the Queen's Lancashire Regiment snapping a bound captive with bloodied teeth in the back of an armoured personnel carrier.

Amnesty demands US 'war crimes' inquiry - In a strongly-worded letter to US President George W Bush, the London-based human rights group expressed its outrage at the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US soldiers at the Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad. - "Amnesty International urges the US government to investigate the allegations at Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq, and other detention facilities to establish whether war crimes have been committed and ensure accountability at the highest level," it said.

A failure of leadership at the highest levels - Army Times - But while responsibility begins with the six soldiers facing criminal charges, it extends all the way up the chain of command to the highest reaches of the military hierarchy and its civilian leadership. - Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, also shares in the shame.

‘60 Minutes II’ to air controversial footage - A soldier talks about how he doesn't care about the Iraqi prisoners - “I hate it here,” she says. “I want to come home. I want to be a civilian again. We actually shot two prisoners today. One got shot in the chest for swinging a pole against our people on the feed team. One got shot in the arm. We don’t know if the one we shot in the chest is dead yet.”

UN wrote to US about Iraq deaths - The UN's Human Rights Commission repeatedly asked coalition forces for explanations about deaths in detention in Iraq, it has been revealed.

SORRY.. WE WERE HOAXED - VOICE OF THE MIRROR: Iraqi PoW abuse pictures handed to us WERE fake - Hoaxes: Minister Adam Ingram - IT is now clear that the photographs the Mirror published of British soldiers abusing an Iraqi prisoner were fakes.

Advice Rejected - JAG Lawyers Say Political Appointees Ignored Their Warnings on Prisoner Treatment’ - Lawyers from the military's Judge Advocate General's Corps, or JAG, had been urging Pentagon officials to ensure protection for prisoners for two years before the abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison came to light, current and former JAG officers told ABCNEWS.

‘Definitely a Cover-Up’ - Former Abu Ghraib Intel Staffer Says Army Concealed Involvement in Abuse Scandal - Dozens of soldiers — other than the seven military police reservists who have been charged — were involved in the abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, and there is an effort under way in the Army to hide it, a key witness in the investigation told ABCNEWS.

Some Iraqis Held Outside Control of Top General - About 100 high-ranking Iraqi prisoners held for months at a time in spartan conditions on the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport are being detained under a special chain of command, under conditions not subject to approval by the top American commander in Iraq, according to military officials. - While not tantamount to the sexual humiliation and other abuses inflicted on Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, the conditions have been described by the Red Cross as a violation of the Geneva Conventions, the international treaty that the Bush administration has said it regards as "fully applicable" to all prisoners held by the United States in Iraq.

More Photos Surface - Soldiers Shown Giving Thumbs Up Sign - ABCNEWS has obtained two new photos taken at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq showing Spc. Charles Graner and Spc. Sabrina Harman posing over the body of a detainee who was allegedly beaten to death by CIA or civilian interrogators in the prison's showers.

New Details of Prison Abuse Emerge - Abu Ghraib Detainees' Statements Describe Sexual Humiliation And Savage Beatings - Previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq describe in raw detail abuse that goes well beyond what has been made public, adding allegations of prisoners being ridden like animals, sexually fondled by female soldiers and forced to retrieve their food from toilets.

Videos Amplify Picture of Violence - The new pictures and videos go beyond the photos previously released to the public in several ways, amplifying the overt violence against detainees and displaying a variety of abusive techniques previously unseen.

US general linked to Abu Ghraib abuse - Leaked memo reveals control of prison passed to military intelligence to 'manipulate detainees' - Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, head of coalition forces in Iraq, issued an order last October giving military intelligence control over almost every aspect of prison conditions at Abu Ghraib with the explicit aim of manipulating the detainees' "emotions and weaknesses", it was reported yesterday.

Punishment and Amusement - Documents Indicate 3 Photos Were Not Staged for Interrogation - Prisoners posed in three of the most infamous photographs of abuse to come out of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were not being softened up for interrogation by intelligence officers but instead were being punished for criminal acts or the amusement of their jailers, according to previously secret documents obtained by The Washington Post. - TVNL Comment: Photo gallery in this article

Continuing the Cover-Up? - Military Takes Action Against Key Witness in Abu Ghraib Abuse Scandal - A witness who told ABCNEWS he believed the military was covering up the extent of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison was today stripped of his security clearance and told he may face prosecution because his comments were "not in the national interest."

Prison Visits By General Reported In Hearing - Alleged Presence of Sanchez Cited by Lawyer - A military lawyer for a soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib abuse case stated that a captain at the prison said the highest-ranking U.S. military officer in Iraq was present during some "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse," according to a recording of a military hearing obtained by The Washington Post.

New photos show Abu Ghraib tactics - Naked Iraqis interrogated aggressively in images - A series of photographs obtained exclusively by NBC News depicts what sources said was the aggressive interrogation of three naked Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the detention facility outside Baghdad that is at the center of the scandal over U.S. mistreatment of Iraqi detainees.

U.S. covered up abuse - The Bush administration "circumvented" the Geneva Convention with the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, the international advocacy group Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

Interrogation abuses were 'approved at highest levels' - "There are some extremely damaging documents around, which link senior figures to the abuses," said Scott Horton, the former chairman of the New York Bar Association, who has been advising Pentagon lawyers unhappy at the administration's approach. "The biggest bombs in this case have yet to be dropped."

On Television, Torture Takes a Holiday - The minimizing - and in some cases outright elimination - of Abu Ghraib and its aftermath from network news coverage is in part (but only in part) political. Fox News, needless to say, has trivialized the story from the get-go, as hallmarked by Bill O'Reilly's proud refusal to run the photos of Graner & Company after they first surfaced at CBS. (This is in keeping with the agenda of the entire Murdoch empire, whose flagship American paper, The New York Post, twice ran Prince Harry's Nazi costume as a Page 1 banner while relegating Specialist Graner's conviction a day later to the bottom of Page 9.) During the presidential campaign, John Kerry barely mentioned Abu Ghraib, giving TV another reason to let snarling dogs lie. Senator John Warner's initially vigilant Congressional hearings - which threatened to elevate the craggy Virginia Republican to a TV stardom akin to Sam Ervin's during Watergate - mysteriously petered out.

Photos of the tortured and humiliated Iraqi prisoners: NOTE: We have removed the images from the Daily Mirror. It now appears that they were not authentic.